But Grunwald, who has consulted German parliament on the topic, says security flaws enable fraudsters to clone the fingerprint image stored on the biometric e-passport, and to concoct a specially coded chip that attacks e-passport readers that attempt to scan it.

"The e-passport segment made big strides as interoperability efforts intensified," said Michelle Foong of Frost, "impelled by a heightened sense of urgency for more secure and sophisticated travel documents."

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